Labour MP says Jeremy Corbyn threatened to tell on him to his dad and bully him into silence
Leader's office denies Conor McGinn's extraordinary claim he considered calling his father to 'apply pressure'
JEREMY Corbyn allegedly threatened to call a Labour MP’s father in a bid to "bully" the politician into silence.
Conor McGinn made the extraordinary claim on Twitter last night that the party leader had considered using his dad, a Sinn Fein councillor, in an attempt to "apply pressure" on him after public criticism of him.
Mr Corbyn's office dismissed the claims as "untrue" and the leader hit back saying he doesn’t “do bullying”, but St Helens North MP accused his boss of hypocrisy for talking about a "kinder, gentler politics".
He said: "The leader of the Labour Party was proposing to address an issue with one of his own MPs by ringing his dad."
The Labour whip suggested Mr Corbyn considered calling his father, Pat McGinn, because he is a Sinn Fein councillor and thought they may "share a political affinity";.
Mr McGinn said the leader had contemplated the action against him after a critical interview in May, when he attacked his policy on nuclear disarmament.
He said Mr Corbyn had initially asked for his resignation and considered sacking him after the comments in The House magazine, but subsequently reconsidered.
But he added that he was later informed by colleagues in the Whips' Office about the proposal to call his father.
He said he had not made the incident public until now "because I find it shocking and embarrassing, and almost unbelievable".
In a statement, he said: "It transpired that Jeremy, in deliberations about how to respond to my interview, had said that he intended to ring my father to discuss it with him and ask him to speak to me about it.
"The leader of the Labour Party was proposing to address an issue with one of his own MPs by ringing his dad.
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“Jeremy does not know my father so I can only presume that, because of the much-publicised fact that my father was a Sinn Fein councillor, Jeremy felt that they would share a political affinity and was proposing to use that to ask my father to apply pressure on me.
"Thankfully, others dissuaded Jeremy from taking this course of action. The call was not made, and it would not have been well-received."
Mr McGinn said he had decided to go public after watching an interview with Mr Corbyn in which he repeated his mantra of supporting a "kinder, gentler politics".
The Labour leader has insisted he is not a bully, and said he wants his colleagues to concentrate on "political issues" amid claims that he had "contributed" to the abuse of his critics.
Mr Corbyn, who is fighting former shadow work and pensions secretary Owen Smith to hang on to the party's top job, said he is "disappointed" by the claims
He told Sky News: "I wish some of my colleagues would concentrate on political issues.
“I regret the language that's been used, by all of them.
"I don't do any abuse, I don't do any bullying, I don't allow it to be done anywhere to do with any of my campaign teams and I'm very surprised and very disappointed they should say that because politics has to be about bringing people in.”